Brandon Thomas went to the mall with his family last Saturday and had his van stolen. That would be a hassle for anyone, but for the 33-year-old and his family it’s a tragedy.

Thomas is paralyzed. He also suffers from brain damage and he has to be cared for by his aging parents who live in San Pablo. All of that misery is because of a hit and run driver nine years ago, as KTVU reported.

As if that burden weren’t enough to bear, now the family’s van, a 2004 green Ford Freestar, specially equipped with a lift for a wheelchair, is gone.

“They (thiefs) are the scum of the earth. The scum of the earth,” said Brandon’s mother Stella Thomas as KTVU cited. “A blind person could see this is a specially equipped van. And to steal it anyway.”

The van, which had been parked in a handicapped space, is an olive green color and has a disabled California license plate # DP053LP.

Karen D'Souza is the theater critic for the Mercury News and the Bay Area News Group papers. She is a three-time Pulitzer juror, a former USC/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow and a longtime member of the Glickman Drama Jury and the American Theatre Critics Association. She has a Master's Degree in Journalism from UC Berkeley. She is a Twitter addict (@KarenDSouza4), a fangirl and a mommy and her writings have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle and American Theatre Magazine.

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